SSD Prices to Reach Parity with HDDs in 2016

It wasn’t too long ago that computer owners were celebrating solid state drive prices dropping below the $1/GB mark, but a new report suggests that SSD retail prices could soon fall in line with those of their cheaper mechanical equivalents, the hard disk drive (HDD). A forecast from InformationWeek predicts that SSD prices could be 1:1 with HHDs by the end of 2016.

The article on InformationWeek’s Network Computing site, written by former Vice President of Engineering at Germane Systems Jim O’Reilly, reads:

So what about SSD price points? In 2014, prices for high-end consumer SSDs dropped below enterprise-class HDD, and continued to drop in 2015. A terabyte SSD can be had for around $300. Moreover, this is before 3D NAND begins to further cut prices. By the end of 2016, it’s a safe bet that price parity will be close, if not already achieved, between consumer SSDs and the bulk SATA drives.

The Network Computing post also suggests that SSDs are set to beat HDDs on capacity soon, too:

The result of the density increase is clear: This year, SSDs will nearly catch up to HDD in capacity. Meanwhile, hard drives appear to be stuck at 10 TB capacity, and the technology to move beyond that size is going to be expensive once it’s perfected. HDD capacity curves already were flattening, and the next steps are likely to take some time.

This all means that SSDs will surpass HDDs in capacity in 2016. There’s even serious talk of 30 TB solid-state drives in 2018.

Will this price parity and capacity increase for solid state drives mark the death knell for hard disks? Or will they still have a practical role to play in computing?